Digimon World: Hiro's Epic
by Kyklous360
Summary: An anomaly has occurred in the Digital World! The Azure Dragon, Qinglongmon has mysteriously died! Civilized digimon have suddenly gone hostile! The Digital World has devolved into a world where only the strong can survive. The only hope to stop this is an average eleven-year-old who just so happened to find himself in the middle of it. May the Lord help us.
1. Death of a So-Called God

**A/N** : If I may take a moment to brag, when I was an eleven-year-old boy, I was a terrible writer (wait, is that really considered bragging?) and I had the worst reminder of it in the form of my first fanfic.

It was 2009 and my Pokémon frenzy spurned by the release of Diamond and Pearl had died off for the most part allowing me time to fawn over my first love: Digimon. Earlier I was content with just watching the show, but with no major anime adaptations coming over to the US for this new resurgence in Digimon fervor, it became apparent I'd have to take matters into my own hands.

Thus started my quest for Digimon merchandise outside of the show such as the Digimon card game, video games, and the like only to be cut short by the fact that most of the stuff I wanted was only available second hand. I was incapable of convincing my parents to buy it off of E-bay so that dream was deferred, but my passion lived on. I started to imagine what the Digimon World franchise was actually like and, without even thinking, my machinations found their way onto paper. It was more like a "Digimon Mystery Dungeon" I suppose presented as a Script Fic with no details in settings, jumpy plots, and flat characters as expected from a story with no prior consideration though looking back, I guess it did have its own charm.

Just a half-year later, I was filled with so much cringe that I decided to make another story labeled Digimon World, but that was actually a loyal novelization of the actual game based off of what I saw from Walkthroughs and Strategy Guides. I guess it was better written as far as stories go, but it was _boring._ It had a decent handle on plot, sure, but it didn't have a character with an identity crisis, an emphasis on Digimon society, or any of the other things I liked about the original story.

This is my fine attempt at a compromise with some things I threw in for the sake of it. It's technically my first story so criticism would be much appreciated. Please enjoy!

P.S. - The story is narrated by Akira from Digimon World 2 who in turn uses Hiro's narration of events where applicable. Most of the story can be said to be from Hiro's point of view, but there will be some parts where Akira will take over. I think I've given them enough quirks to tell who is who, but just in case, this will probably be the only Author's Note for risk of confusion and lack of immersion.

P.P.S. - "Hiro" is a common Japanese name which could possibly mean "abundant," "generous," or "prosperous" depending on Kanji. Honestly, its similar pronunciation to the English word "hero" is but a coincidence, a coincidence that I'm going to exploit shamelessly.

* * *

I was honored when you asked me to write about our encounters with digimon. Is "honored" the word? Maybe excited or relieved. I don't know. I was never really eloquent with words.

Anyways, as soon as I received the instruction, I rushed to write my first draft using memories, my first feelings, and accounts from witnesses, but I had to scrap it. It wasn't perfect.

After many attempts, I finally found why I wasn't satisfied with it. This wasn't my story to tell! This really all began with the breach in the Fire Wall that happened one day near the end of fifth grade, and to accurately tell the story, I'd have to start from before I featured in: when an ordinary, reserved eleven-year-old youth dived into the Digital World for who knows why for the first time. I tried narrating it myself, but Hiro communicated the experience far better than I ever could. So without further ado!

* * *

 **The First Episode**

 _Death of a So-Called "God"_

It wasn't the sounding of the trumpet that had awoken me from the grave, but loud whimpers as if in subdued cries for help. The confusion I felt was not the grogginess normally felt from waking, but that which one would feel when their thoughts and reality didn't match up. I looked left and right, then up and down, but I found no traces of the promised paradise of the believers or the horrid punishment that existed for the disbelievers; just an endless bog of darkness. Was I too late to be judged or simply too early?

There existed no audible sounds sans the screams and cries of a man sprinting up ahead. There existed no visible light sans the sphere of light chasing after the man that, from its intensity, appeared to attract all the energy of the world within its radius, and floating majestically within the center was the most surreal sight of this entire experience: the thing chasing this helpless man was an Azure Dragon; a thing of legends.

Oh, right! Sorry. Have I ever recounted to you the story of the day I died? I know it's strange coming from me in the flesh, but it really did happen, you know? I saw it myself after all. It was one May day in the year of Lightspeed Rescue. Do you know that one day, when a great fire broke out? It actually came over to my apartment building. No, I wasn't in the building when it first started, but when given a choice between going in the building to retrieve something and getting to safety and calling 911, I, being the idiot I was, chose the one most likely to get me killed.

Actually, please give me a moment to reflect on my actions. This was the year that Carter Grayson's noble acts of saving a little girl from a burning fire would later deem him worthy of becoming a Power Ranger and I, an eleven-year-old boy with no emergency training, was unintentionally imitating his commendable act. That's cute and all, but there were three main differences.

One, I had neither official training nor anyone to back me up if needed. If it weren't for the fact that the elevator had already been rendered unusable, I would have ridden that to my death. Not to mention that, because of that, I lacked the strength necessary to escort any victims. That didn't really deter me much as it wasn't my objective, which leads me to my next point.

Two, my motivations were radically different from Carter's. Carter went in with the full intention of saving everyone inside. I, on the other hand, simply felt left out seeing my friends playing with their v-pets at the park. I was motivated by my desire to rescue the v-pet I had left in my apartment since I really didn't want to burden my father with buying a new one, and it was the only connection I had with my friends. That's disregarding how the sentiments within said v-pet had made it an irreplaceable existence for me.

Three, I had – actually, I still have it to this day – a great fear of fire. I was only able to bear through it with my obsession with retrieving my v-pet. As soon as I got the v-pet in my hands, the threat of death by the scorching fire became all the more apparent to me. Paralyzed by fear and with nowhere to go, I succumbed to the suffocation of the fire that greedily ate up all the oxygen.

Overall, the biggest difference was that I was not Carter Grayson; I wasn't a hero. Forget my fellow victims and my v-pet; I couldn't even save myself. I find it poetic, fitting even, how my death mirrored the death of my mother all those years ago. I didn't personally remember actually being ensnared by the fire, but with time passing by while I was pondering the circumstance of the man running from the dragon, I couldn't help but imagine that my body would have been cremated by now.

The man looked like your stereotypical geek with less than ideal facial features mostly hidden by large-square shaped lenses and dark, unkempt hair blowing in the wind freely as he screamed for help while desperately trying to maneuver his unfit body. Unfortunately for him, the only one he could rely on – the only person here – was an eleven-year-old kid who had already flubbed a mission of a smaller scope than confronting a serpentine dragon, but...

I looked at the man's illuminated figure and then back at my own having gone transparent after death. Chances were that he was the only human in this large stretch of darkness and the only thing that scares me more than being in the dark with a hostile dragon is being _alone_ in the dark with a hostile dragon. So, despite my better judgment, I ran towards the man and took his hand in order to urge him to follow my pace.

The man was startled. "Hey kid, what are you doing here?"

"Saving your life," I responded.

"Are you trying to tell me you know how to beat a Sovereign?"

"A Sovereign?"

"Physical…or rather 'Digital' Gods. Basically what this guy is."

"…No, I can't say I do." The man looked at me with face deadpan. Hey, I had to do something! You were the one calling for help! It wasn't my fault the monster ended up having such bloated credentials as a "Digital God", whatever that means anyways.

"Well, I actually have a way of defeating it," the man finally said.

I couldn't hide my shock. "Really!" He had a way of killing a dragon?

"I have his source code right in front of me. I can't just delete all the code since I don't know what would happen to this dimension since it was made specifically for him, but it should be fine as long as we change his class type from Sovereign to Digimon. Then I can use the programs I've developed to handle digimon to finish him once and for all."

I struggled to understand through his panting and use of terminology, but I basically understood he could manipulate _something_ or another to make the "Sovereign" a…digimon? Like the digimon in my v-pet? And he knew some way of destroying it? I swear, were it not for evidence to the contrary, I'd find it hard to laugh this off as anything but a dream. I asked him, "Why didn't you do this before?"

He answered, "It's not quite as easy as that. The source code is actually in an encryption code that I find difficult to decipher. I need you to distract the monster for me while I take the time to find out which letter corresponds with what. Give me your e-mail address so that I can mail you the source code. It might go faster if we both try to decode it."

E-mail address? Who in the world cares about their e-mail address when they're already dead? Although, he kept going on about the weird characters the source code had. For once, I took a break from looking back at the behemoth behind me to gaze at the front. There was indeed strange text grouped in lines although I could strangely make out the words. " 'Public static void main(String args[])' Ew. Even when you can actually read it, it makes no sense."

"Is that the source code? Are you reading the source code?"

"I guess…"

"Great. You stay and alter the code. I'll distract him."

"Um…change what exactly?"

"What? You can't even understand something that simple?" He paused to further the distance between him and the Azure Dragon. "There should be a line that says 'Sovereign' something or another '= new Sovereign' something, something, something, right? Replace every 'Sovereign' with 'Digimon' and reduce every numerical value to zero."

There actually was a line like that. I did just as he said. Then everything stopped; the dragon's advancement, the flow of light emitting from him, even my incorporeal body.

"What happened?" I asked.

"The program's not compiling. I think it's because Sovereign inherits from Digimon. You need to take away some instance fields."

"I can't understand what you're saying!"

"Fine, I forgot you're a brat. On the right side of the '=' there should be parentheses. In there, there's some extra data that a 'Digimon' does not have. From what I remember, it was nine extra Digicore objects and a direction. Just delete those specific fields altogether."

I'd be lying if I said I actually knew what he meant, but I followed his instructions to the tee. Suddenly, the darkness washed over us in full force inspiring a crippling sense of fear within my heart as the Azure Dragon lost the spheres that had apparently been the source of its light. This was supposed to be our victory, but something inside me told me this wasn't how things were supposed to play out.

"What's going on?" I asked fearfully.

"I don't know myself, but I couldn't be happier. At last, I've gained entrance into the Digital World!" The man shouted victoriously as he walked proudly through a rip in the dark void. He had abandoned me.

I looked around. Certainly, I was unsettled from being lonely in the dark, but more worthy of note were the rips in space opening and closing faster and faster in quick succession. I took one long look at the fallen Sovereign ridding myself of any delusions that this was anywhere close to finished. I braced myself for the worst, but I couldn't have predicted what would occur next: the corpse of the dragon exploded in front of me sending me through a tear that had opened up before me from the shockwave.


	2. File City

**The Second Episode**

 _File City_

There comes a time in every pre-teen's life where they contemplate their sanity. I think it's become a rite-of-passage of sorts; a normal thing that everyone has to go through. Of course, taking what I had experienced was hard to swallow as anything but abnormal. I had, in the span of a couple of minutes, died in a fire, woken up in a dark world, defeated a menacing dragon, and, to top off this already ridiculous string of events...

"You idiot! Do you know the gravity of your actions? Do you know the consequences that are sure to unfold?"

...I started hearing voices in my head. And I thought eleven-year-olds couldn't get Schizophrenia.

"Hey! Are you ignoring me? I am a god, you know? Show me the respect I deserve!" The voice exclaimed with total indignation.

"And what heroic act have I done, pray tell, that has blessed me with your presence, noble deity?" I asked with pure sarcasm.

"Have you already forgotten my assassination at the hands of you and that other analog?"

I took a moment to think, and then it came to me. "Oh, you were that dragon! I'm sorry. I didn't mean to kill you. I was just trying to save that guy."

"Ignorance! Do not confuse me with the lowborn dramon Family. I am the almighty Sovereign of the Eastern Digital World, Qinglongmon, and I shall be remembered as such. Disposing of that man was my job! Now that I'm dead, that anomaly is free to do as he wills with my sector of the Digital World, and it's all your fault."

"No offense–"

"I promise that you have already done enough to offend me as it is."

"–but you're a "god," right? Shouldn't you be immortal? How could you die so easily?"

"Surely, I am like you, amongst those waiting for an answer to that question. Such a thing should be impossible, and the fact that my demise came at the hands of a weak anomaly such as you is a matter that will shame me for years to come. Honestly, was it not for the fact..."

I decided to ignore him for a bit. Listening to him was like getting scolded by a crotchety old man. Yeah, I get that I flubbed, but he didn't have to snarl at me. Instead I calmed myself by looking around at the scenery.

Trees stood scattered around with picture-perfect foliage that was so uniformly green, one would immediately assume they were an artificial construct. I suppose you could call it a forest, but the trees were so short with most only having two branches, and there were so many clearings, it made the whole forest seem laughably immature; like a "kiddy forest".

Patches of grass were also spread around here and there. I guess you could say there was more variety in color, but from a distance, all the blades of grass looked the same height as if somebody took the time to mow it every day. It was like the turf of a football stadium.

You can tell I really like nature if I'm capable of observing all this, huh? Though it would be a great misstep if I didn't mention the bizarre things I found lying around. There were flowers in all kinds of colors, port-a-potties suggesting this area was already settled, surfing gear even though, as far as I knew, we were nowhere near the beach, and other things. I tried looking above to inspect the situation up there, but somehow, I ended up rolling on my back. What?

"Hey what's wrong with me? Why's my head connected to my body?" I asked more out of surprise than anything else.

Qinglongmon provided an answer anyways, "What, you weren't listening? Obviously, if I were to have truly lost my life, it would be the same as forfeiting the fate of the Digital World, so I decided to fuse my digicore with your spirit to bypass the reincarnation process, Analog, or should I say 'Koromon'?"

"Koromon?"

"Yes, a koromon. You have forced me to fall this far from grace. Take responsibility and cultivate this body into that of a Sovereign's."

Well Koromon was one of my favorite digimon, but still…I'm a digimon?

I was so lost in thought absorbing this information; I couldn't even hear the creature approaching closer and closer through the low-cut patches of grass.

"Analog, there's a hostile digimon coming from behind you!" Qinglongmon alerted me.

I rolled around to turn and face my enemy, but it was already too late. Some type of amphibian monster had awkwardly flopped towards me and clawed at me. I'm not confident that I can accurately describe the pain of my first-ever wound from a digimon, but it was far worse than getting scratched by your neighbor's cat, I'll tell you that much. Bright, white particles flowed from my cheek in place of blood and flowed into the monster.

"What's that?" I shouted scared out of my wits. Why couldn't the Digimon anime have an analog to "Who's That Pokémon?"

"Modokibetamon, a rookie level amphibian digimon," Qinglongmon answered, "I could not have asked for a better first battle. Modokibetamon is a digimon that performs far better in the water than on land so take advantage of that. Your soul is the possessor of the body, so you are the one with final say in what we do."

What? I have to fight him? How? I haven't fought a single day in my life. Not to mention that I was, for all intents and purposes, a disembodied head. How was I supposed to beat him? By charging into him?

The modokibetamon didn't look like he intending on waiting for me to figure it out. He had recovered his stance from his surprise attack, but it didn't seem like he wanted to try charging again as he firmly planted his flippers on the ground facing my way with electricity crackling around his dorsal fin.

"Get ready. He's preparing to use Electro Shock," Qinglongmon warned me.

Was he seriously telling me to dodge lightning? In case you didn't get the picture, the best I can do is roll. I used the tried and tested dodge ball strategy of running all over the place trying not to get hit.

"Electro Shock!" The modokibetamon fired a flash of lightning arching over towards my location…and missing me entirely.

I can't believe my "strategy" actually worked. I guess modokibetamon lacked the intelligence to redirect the attack when I changed location.

"Electro Shock! Electro Shock! Electro Shock!"

The modokibetamon fired off lightning bolts in quick succession, but to his frustration, I had always somehow meandered out of the way. Thank you God! Now all I needed to do was figure out how to attack him. I did just that, charging towards him in as fast a roll as I could muster.

"Aqua Tower!" The modokibetamon shouted out a different attack from what I was used to. I was already on a full collision course with him, but I assumed with my momentum, he should miss just like the other times.

That's what I get for making assumptions. I was hoisted in the air by a pillar of water that just seemed to gush out of nowhere. And just when I was about to begin my descent, the modokibetamon jumped up towards me with legs tucked out and body spinning at a speed I didn't think possible.

"Fin Blade!" The modokibetamon shouted as he proceeded to cut into the top of my head with his dorsal fin.

I landed too tired to stand or whatever you'd call the stance of a head being properly oriented. More light than before flowed from my injury into the monster before me. I felt faint like I was losing consciousness. Maybe I was going to die again.

"I thought you said he was the ideal enemy," I said to Qinglongmon bitterly.

"Why didn't you use that same sorcery that you used to defeat me before? Are you implying you can defeat a god, but you cannot defeat a common rookie?"

I didn't answer as I awaited my second death at the hands of one of those digimon I loved so much. Indeed, there were many reasons to think I was going insane: becoming a Koromon, the digimon in my v-pet; conversing with a so-called God; and the final nail in the coffin, seeing my favorite digimon: Agumon jump in at the last moment and interceding in my behalf. "Just how much sugar did I eat last night to have such a ridiculous dream," I thought to myself as I passed out.

* * *

"Ah!" I shouted instinctively to scare off my captor. Because of the sand in my tired eyes, everything seemed to blur together with the tan walls as I rolled around aimlessly for the door. The only thing I could discern was the white figure who seemed to be holding a weapon.

"Easy there. I promise I don't bite," said my captor.

"I bet that's what the Big Bad Wolf said to Little Red Riding Hood before he ate her!"

Realizing the futility of it, I stopped rolling and found myself backed to the wall. My eyes had finally recovered enough to see the details of the small, dimly lit room, but my eyes were fixed squarely on the hobbit-like figure, different only in the white facial hair that obscured most of his features. My captor took a slow step towards me.

"D-don't! Don't come any closer!" I shouted with teeth bared threateningly so he'd know to stay away. "Help! Help!"

"Analog..." the voice inside me had probably said. I don't know. The fear I felt blotted out every sensation but that of my screams.

"Somebody! Anybody! Help! This guy's going to—!"

"In the name of Lord Yggdrasil, Analog! This guy helped you!" Qinglongmon shouted finally having enough.

"Huh?" My shouts stopped, logical reasoning just now returning to my tired mind.

"What's going on, Jijimon!" exclaimed a high-pitched voice followed by the arrival of a blue creature covered in white hairs almost like a beard.

Both the person I assumed to be "Jijimon" and I made a simple turn towards the intruder falling into an awkward silence as we were trying to keep up with the situation.

"...Ahem. It's nothing really. I believe this Koromon had a misunderstanding," Jijimon said finally. Thank the Lord for that. I'm not really the best at dispelling misunderstandings.

Jijimon looked at me to see if I would react. Seeing that I had calmed down somewhat, he cautiously assumed a decidedly inoffensive stance, feet leveled and staff at side like a cane, as he explained, "Agumon found this koromon in the midst of a losing battle against a modokibetamon and I decided to save him and bring him to me for treatment." Then he spoke directly to me, "I promise I only had the best of intentions, but I suppose I would have a similar reaction if I was to awaken in a stranger's house."

At the time, I was glad that bits of data seemed to take the place of blood in the digimon anatomy. Nothing could have hidden my embarrassment otherwise. Evidently, nothing could hide my expression of confusion as it was the next thing the intruder had inquired about.

"Is there something wrong?" the new digimon asked.

"...How are you flying?" I returned in kind.

Now I admit I could have thought of a better question. "Where am I?" would have been nice. If I had asked "Where's the nearest restaurant?" or even "How do I go to the bathroom?", I probably could have gotten a lot of problems out of the way right off the bat. But seriously, you don't just see an impossibility like this and just let it go! Judging by her apparent mass and volume, she shouldn't be able to blow off with the wind let alone stay suspended in the air like that.

The digimon giggled like she heard a funny joke, "That's a weird question to ask. I'm a yuramon. All yuramon float," she said as if it was something as well known as "one plus one equals two".

"Why even bother asking her? I am one who has been endowed with all the knowledge of the world," Qinglongmon said giving his opinion.

"So do you know how yuramon float?" I asked Qinglongmon with hope evident in my voice.

"Obviously. Because they're yuramon. All yuramon float."

"Chirp, Qinglongmon! Who asked you?"

What made Yuramon so special? Why can't I fly?

I decided to leave the topic alone so I could get more important questions answered, but before I could, Yuramon interrupted, "Did you say Qinglongmon? Were you talking to Qinglongmon?"

Chirp! I messed up. It's not like I suddenly recognized Qinglongmon as a god, but I respected the fact that pagans had the same level of reverence of their deity as I did mine. I couldn't say something like "Your god is dead, and he's dead because I killed him". I opened my mouth to give an excuse, but she quickly interrupted me with a flurry of questions, "Were you a holy Digimon in your past life? Were you an angel under the Lord? Did you enter the Palace of Qinglongmon? Did you meet his Devas? Did he give you some kind of awesome power? Is that why you were trying to fight that modokibetamon? If Agumon-?"

"Stop, Yuramon! Koromon just recovered from a battle that only happened three hours ago. At least allow him some time to rest before you interrogate him—"

"Hiro," I said interrupting their conversation.

"Excuse me?" Jijimon asked confused.

"My name's Hiro," I said in elaboration.

The air became silent again just like when Yuramon had entered the building, but this time I couldn't understand why. I only told them my name. Yuramon's giggling broke it up. "You're really interesting. When you're ready to talk, just come see me. I'll be where all the action is."

Then she left and any remnant of the lively atmosphere from earlier went along with her. As if it was attempting to dispel the silence, my stomach growled ferociously. Once again, I was relieved to know embarrassment wasn't easily visible on my face.

"You must be hungry. Follow me. I know a place that can fill you up." Jijimon gestured me to follow him out the exit and I followed after his waddling figure.

"This also gives me time to give a small tour of my prided city," Jijimon said as soon as we came out of the building. "This is File City Hall. Beautiful place, isn't it?"

I begged to differ. Rather, this was City Hall? Even from inside, it looked so plain and homely I thought it was just the man's house. Outside, it was a total disaster. Whose great idea was it to design the _City Hall_ after a cardboard box with a tin can coming out of it for the exit? Even the citizens didn't seem to respect it. There was graffiti on each of the walls. It was tasteless too. One was captioned "Poop Deck" and right under it was…Oh Lord! What are these people? Two?

Jijimon sighed as he said, "I can tell from your face you're not buying it. Fine, the truth is the city doesn't have the sufficient funds for luxuries like a more aesthetically pleasing building. At least, not since we lost the Champion and Ultimate Digimon."

"Why did they leave?" I asked.

"Not too long ago, perhaps a month, this city was the most prosperous settlement on File Island. Then a strange happening occurred. All the ultimate digimon rose against us despite being perfectly content just a day or two prior. It took the combined effort of the champion level digimon to finally delete them.

"It was a sad incident that we mourned for seven days, and on the seventh, the champion digimon, that had been so crucial to our survival in the Insurgence of Ultimates, fought against us in the very same way. This time, I had no one to rely on to defeat them but myself. I could not hope to defeat them all, but I was successful in pushing the hostiles away past the outskirts of File City.

"There were no victories in the battles, only losses: the loss of lives, the loss of property, my own loss of data required for more than just feebly walking around. Perhaps worst of all is the loss of security and peace of mind. Why did they suddenly turn on us? What are they doing now? What are we going to do if they ever decide to come back?"

I was silent as I contemplated his story.

"Analog, this is all your fault," Qinglongmon called out disturbing the mood.

"How is this my fault? This happened before I even got here?" I argued back.

"I didn't mean it has anything to do with you," Jijimon said defensively, but I ignored him.

"You fool! Can't you see? It's that analog man. He came to the Digital World before you and now he's experimenting with the corruption of digimon," Qinglongmon continued.

"How is that even possible? He only went into the Digital World a few minutes before I did."

"Only if you go by the flow of time in _my_ world. Time flows faster in the Digital World than in my world. My world takes into account the amount of memory necessary to process my actions."

Seriously? Well I guess it was consistent with his claims of being a god. The Lord said he had created the heaven and the earth in six days. Being able to do so much in so little time, a moment for a divine being is probably what would amount to a month if not more. Still, you can't blame _me_ for _his_ actions.

"...Koromon, who are you talking to?" Jijimon asked out of concern.

Deciding explaining the situation honestly would prevent any complications later, I answered, "I was talking to Qinglongmon."

His facial features only sagged further downwards in worry, "I was surprised when you had recovered from that fight in just three hours, but it seems you took more damage to the head than I had first thought. Come on, we best get going. I'll take you to a specialist as soon as you're fed."

Oh my Lord! He didn't believe me. Did I really look that untrustworthy? If you're asking a person for an honest answer you should at least listen.

Well another thing he said popped out at me. He said it was strange that my injury had healed so quickly. Of course I knew a life-threatening injury healing in just three hours was anything but normal, but up until then, I thought all digimon could do that. If not, was it because of Qinglongmon's digicore?

It didn't take too long to make it to the next destination as it was just to the northeast of the City Hall. The sight before me was so beautiful it had cleared my mind, which had been very active just moments before. Stretching over the horizon were amber waves of crops that I'd assume were ready for a harvest accentuated by the golden sun that signaled the ending of the work day.

"This," Jijimon said with the smile of a man seeing the success of his child, "is our prided meat patch. At the moment, our rate of production is at thirty giant meat per day. It's on the decline though..."

"Why is meat growing from the ground?" I asked. It was a fair, valid question, right?

"Oh? Is this your first life? All food can be grown from the ground," Jijimon swiftly answered like I had asked him why it's bright during the day.

I heard a low grumble within me. "Why do you insist on asking questions to anybody, but me? Surely, I am the one endowed with all knowledge," Qinglongmon said proudly.

I already anticipated the sort of answer I'd get, but I asked anyways, "So do you know why meat is growing from the ground? And don't say 'Because all food can be grown from the ground.'"

"One day, I said, 'May meat spring forth from the ground!', and thus it did."

Hm. I gave him points for diversity, but, seriously, how egotistical could he get?

Maneuvering through the patch of meat, we eventually came across a tanemon napping while meshed between a bed of flowers. From a distance, I probably would have mistaken her as a sprout myself.

"Tanemon, wake up! It's almost dinner time," Jijimon said to rouse her.

"Huh? Where am I? Why am I here? Who am I? Who are you?" Tanemon said in an even and gentle voice. I couldn't tell if it was from drowsiness or if that was just how her voice was.

"Don't worry about it, Koromon. She's just faking amnesia so she doesn't have to do the work. This is Tanemon, our resident sloth."

Tanemon pouted subtly. "That's not very nice, Jijimon. I just wanted to play with the plants a little more, that's all." She then noticed my presence and added as an introduction of sorts, "I really love plants. I don't know all about them like Palmon does, but I can probably pin a name to any plant."

"Speaking of Palmon, where is she?"

"I think she's out loading the wagon."

"So why aren't you helping?"

"Who are you?"

Probably correctly judging scolding her would be more work than it was worth, Jijimon gave up and led me to where I assumed the wagon was. There, I spotted a Palmon stuffing hunks of meat into a four-wheeled wagon. I assumed the gabumon holding the handle was supposed to be a stand in for a beast of burden.

"Palmon, are you going out to make your passes?" Jijimon asked. He waited for a timid nod before he asked, "Do you mind if we tag along? We'll get off when we make it to the church."

So these guys go to church? I thought these guys only worshipped their pagan gods, but they also worshipped the Lord? Well, I'm not exactly the best person for educating them on true Christianity though.

A red thread of light settled over the horizon signaling that the day was coming to an end and the slow setting of the sun only served to emphasize how unbearably long the trip was. The only sounds that could be heard were that of us gobbling up the meat. It wasn't until I closed my eyes in somnolence that the first words were spoken by Jijimon, "We've finally made it to the residences."

"Really? For a second there, I thought we had stumbled upon your collection of spare City Hall buildings," I said sarcastically.

"Well, that too," replied Jijimon. It wasn't exactly a fair assessment though. The City Hall building was actually leagues better. These houses were just clumps of dirt organized into a hollowed cone. Guess they ran out of money for cardboard boxes.

We all walked - or rolled in my case - through the dry, lifeless dirt roads with Gabumon trailing behind us with wagon in tow as we went door to door to deliver meat. The doors on these little dirt houses were different from the doors I was used to, but it was one of the few things in the Digital World I could understand. For all intents and purposes, they were giant doggy doors, and that makes sense since obviously a fresh or in-training level digimon can't just use their hands to turn a door knob. There were no visible locks, so I'd have to ask what value it had in terms of security, but I guess this was something they didn't want to spend too much money on.

Palmon rang a bell to alert the digimon that it was dinnertime, Jijimon called out to them, "Come get your meat! First one's free!", and I suppose I just did that weird cross between standing and sitting in-training digimon are forced to do while pretending I couldn't just roll in their and deliver it myself. Well it did touch my heart to see the excitement on their faces when they received their meals.

When we had finally finished our task and rode off in our wagon, I asked, "What about the rookie level digimon?" They weren't in any of the houses we delivered to.

The response I received was, "They're in the next neighborhood over. This neighborhood is only for the in-training and fresh digimon. I already told you, our city's security has been compromised since the Insurgence of Champions. Since rookies are our most likely defense, we have prioritized their comfort over that of the in-training and fresh digimon.

"I was actually planning on sending you to a house in their neighborhood after we go to the church so you can recover, but I'm going to have to ask you to live in the in-training and fresh neighborhood as soon as you do."

Those were the last words I heard before we made it to the church. The sun had already descended all the way, but the sky was still blue like in the early stages of twilight.

We temporarily parked the wagon and dismounted in order to enter the church. The church was, without a doubt, the best looking building in that it actually was a building. It had a solid structure made of stone painted white with gray borders. Where the cross would normally be was a shape best described as a regular pentagon elongated vertically and flipped upside down. Maybe the rebellious digimon had the subconscious desire to keep their place of worship safe? I rolled in timidly with Jijimon leading the way.

The inside was simple but effective. From the entrance, which acted as a focal point, a person would be drawn to the green lines that guided their eyes to walls that curved outward, creating the illusion of having no bounds. And at the front of it all was- Oh my God! Wasn't that the most adorable thing ever? There was a tokomon lying on his stomach where the priest would be, reading what appeared to be a Bible that was about the same size as him.

"Tokomon, may I trouble you for your assistance?" Jijimon asked with a noticeably higher degree of politeness. Was this in-training digimon of an unexpectedly high social standing?

"What seems to be the problem?" asked the Tokomon.

"It's this Koromon. He obtained a head injury in a fight with a modokibetamon and I believe his brain has sustained damages. He keeps claiming he can talk with the Azure Dragon, Qinglongmon. I was hoping you could use your position as head priest to ask the Lord for a cure," Jijimon answered.

"Is this true?" Even when perplexed, a tokomon's face didn't seem to get any less adorable.

"Yes. Yes, it's true. I can talk to Qinglongmon, but that's because I possess one of his digicores, understand?" I said in my defense.

"I see. I see." Tokomon moved in an up and down motion similar to a nod. "And why did you decide to spar with this modokibetamon?"

"No it wasn't my decision. The modokibetamon just came at me for no reason. The only reason I fought back instead of ran away was because Qinglongmon said I could, understand? Although, I see now that it was all a load of bologna."

"I see. I see." Tokomon turned to Jijimon. "Jijimon, I've seen his case many times before. A traumatic event occurs and a digimon finds himself turning to the Sovereigns more and more for help. Eventually, they begin having strange delusions of grandeur like having a digicore inherited from such and such Sovereign or being the next Deva. It's been dubbed 'Sovereign Palace Syndrome' as victims normally acquire it after attending one of the Sovereign's palaces. Possible cures are-"

"You don't 'see' at all!" I yelled angrily. Never mind. Not cute anymore.

"Now, now Koromon, we're just trying to get you better," Jijimon said gently similar to when I first met him, but this time I was having none of it.

"I'm not sick! I'm not crazy! You're crazy! How can you consult an in-training digimon for advice on a topic like this? I bet he doesn't even wipe."

"Sure. Yell at them. That will get them to believe you," Qinglongmon added in sarcastically.

"For God's sake, shut up, Qinglongmon! You're the reason I'm in this mess in the first place! Look guys, I really can talk to Qinglongmon! No, wait. I can prove it. The Insurgences. Why do you think nobody's done anything about the Insurgences? Qinglongmon died and passed me one of his digicores so he wouldn't have to reincarnate!"

"I don't care how sick you are, there's no excuse for spitting such blasphemy within the bounds of the house of our Lord! You expect me to believe an in-training level digimon stormed Qinglongmon's Palace, evaded his Devas, entered the sacred world of Qinglongmon that the Lord _himself_ had locked all entry to, and then slaughtered the god, an act which has been declared impossible?"

"I do apologize for allowing him to anger you, Tokomon," Jijimon said in mediation, "I'll take him home at once. Come on Koromon, say sorry and let's go."

"...Koromon this, Koromon that. My name's not Koromon! Do you know any humans named "Human"? I have a name! My name's Hiro!"

For a moment, silence had dawned on the church. It was evident that I had struck a nerve with him.

"W-what do you mean, Koromon? All koromon are named Koromon. That was the doctrine set forth by the Lord," Jijimon said trying to salvage the situation.

What Bible have you been reading? "My name's not Koromon. I'm Hiro."

"Get out! I will not allow you to mock the Lord any further!" Tokomon said finally having had enough.

Before I could even protest, Jijimon covered my mouth with his hand, carrying me out the door and back towards the food wagon that was waiting patiently for our return.

I was so angry that I didn't even notice when we got to the rookie neighborhood. It was already night time. It must feel bad to have to eat dinner so late. Was this a trade off for having overall better treatment?

Jijimon definitely wasn't kidding about the preferential treatment by the way. The houses were also made from dirt as their standard cost saving measure, but more effort was put into their shape and design. It actually looked like a modern house in our world with the roof being visibly distinct from the rest of the house and the nicer ones among them even having details like windows.

We tread through even fields of grass, much like what I had seen in that place I fought ModokiBetamon, passing out pieces of meat like in the fresh and in-training level neighborhood while admiring the complementary flowers in front of some of the nicer houses; ones that just seemed to glitter in the moonlight. How could anyone stay angry after seeing this?

"Well Koromon, this is where we split up," Jijimon said when we made it to the front of one particular house.

"What?" I was so surprised I couldn't even correct him over my name.

"This is the house of the Agumon that saved you. You don't have to say anything. We already made arrangements, so it should be fine if you just walk in."

I couldn't believe people as nice as this guy actually existed. Here I was, a stranger whose name he didn't even know (to my chagrin), and yet he went out of his way to provide me food and housing. I would hug him...if I had any arms.

"Well, Palmon and I are going to finish our rounds. Since you're going to Agumon's house anyways, I guess it's fine if you deliver the meat yourself," Jijimon said as he handed me three pieces of giant meat.

"You're kidding, right? I have no hands, remember? How do you expect me to carry them with no hands?" I asked pointing out a serious error in reasoning.

"Just load it into your inventory of course."

"My inventory?"

"You didn't know? Even if you started your first life recently, I thought knowledge of the inventory was basic instinct. Well, what you basically need to do is destroy the object in question and absorb its data."

"Oh," I said in vague understanding. I couldn't really figure out how to destroy the meat, but I decided eating it was close enough. Hope Agumon doesn't mind food that's already been chewed.

"Then all you need to do to take it out is say 'Loading giant meat.'"

"Loading giant meat." The instant I said that, data flowed from my body and the giant meat reformed into the state it was in before I chomped at it. Huh. This was probably the single coolest thing I've seen since I entered the Digital World. "But if we have an ability this useful, why didn't we just use it to carry all the meat?"

"Well, every digimon only has a limited amount of memory. Store too much and something has to be replaced."

Really? I wonder if it was dependent on the quantity of items or on the size of the object. Who knows? Maybe it was both.

"Don't be a stranger. Come to City Hall to see me whenever you need help," Jijimon said his farewells.

"Okay! Bye, Jijimon!" I bade farewell back and stepped away from the light of the moon into the dark hallways of the house of my savior.

For those of you planning on buying a house soon, I beg you: keep it simple. Although, quite honestly, you'd have to try in order to reach the same level of complexity as the house of Agumon. It was like a labyrinth. I couldn't tell which turns I had or had not taken and I was quickly becoming more and more unnerved as my fear of being alone in the dark nearly consumed me. Luckily, I found splotches of orange light on the walls when I did, or I'm certain I would have snapped.

Just one turn away from where splotches of light became present on the walls was a large open room like a clearing in a forest. Sitting there in the middle of the room next to a bonfire that he probably created himself was the most iconic digimon of all time and my personal favorite: Agumon.

When I first saw him, I didn't load the pieces of giant meat from my inventory. I didn't thank him for saving me and then agreeing to provide me with hospitality. I didn't ask him how safe it was to light a fire indoors. I just stared. I stared at his awesome figure squatting near the fire with the light of the fire producing a chiaroscuro effect that made him look edgier and regretted that _Digimon Adventure_ lacked the budget to make digimon look this nice.

"What are you doing? Get over here already," Agumon called me over after noticing my staring.

"Whoops. Sorry," I said freed from my trance and rolled over to Agumon's side. "Here's your meat for the day. Loading giant meat."

After the meat appeared on the floor in front of me, Agumon didn't even say thanks before he skewered them with his claws to roast them like marshmallows. Wicked cool! Koromon digivolves into Agumon, right? I can't wait until that happens.

Agumon set his forearm in front of my…head-body complex. "Huh?" I asked. My mind had been too muddled with the events of the day to understand he was offering it to me.

"Take it."

"No, thank you. I already ate enough on the way here." I wasn't lying. I already ate a piece of giant meat when we started our little sally; an amount that, judging from my body size, should have been enough to last me until breakfast. However, for reasons I couldn't begin to understand, my stomach growled loudly as if I'd been starved for days.

Not taking no for an answer, Agumon shoved the roasted meat into my mouth. I chomped down on the meat and snatched it from his claws. Guess I have to eat it.

"When a guest comes over to a host's house, it's the host's duty to make sure their needs are met," Agumon explained.

"So what's the real reason?"

"Hey, cut me a break. Despite my looks, I can be a pretty sensitive guy."

"Sorry, you just don't come across to me as Mr. Customer Service. From the little labyrinth in your entrance way, I'm almost under the impression you don't like people."

"It's a safety precaution. I have to stay safe, because I'm the one everyone's going to be counting on," he turned to look into my eyes emphatically with a shadow looming over the front of his face, "I didn't realize it immediately after all the champions left, but right now, I'm the strongest digimon next to Jijimon. If I'm killed off, there will be nobody to save everyone when the champions eventually return."

When I heard the word "save", I remembered back to how Agumon had saved me from certain death at the hands of the modokibetamon. "Thanks for saving me."

"You don't need to thank me," Agumon said without the subtle boasting that is normally apparent when someone says that line, "it's my job."

* * *

I sat/lay alone against a wall in a room Agumon had allowed me to use for sleep purposes. Well I say alone, but I was never truly alone.

"Analog, vacate this house immediately," Qinglongmon said for the umpteenth time that night.

"Why should I?" I asked through clenched teeth, realizing he wasn't going to let me sleep.

"This is a city of transgressors. I'd rather suffer through death once more than sleep in the city of those who reject the faith," Qinglongmon explained.

"Transgressors?" I never actually heard that word before then.

"It is a very famous mandate that both parties must consent to a battle before it has been waged. What else am I to call they who knowingly go against it?"

"You mean the Insurgences? Is that what you're scared of? I think it should be fine."

"From where do you draw your judgment?"

"It's just that it's been three weeks since the last one, right? If that guy really wanted the rookies to rebel, wouldn't he have done it right after the last Insurgence so he could beat the town down while it's weak? That's why I think everything will work out," I said in a voice so calm, I almost lulled myself back to sleep.

"I have just as great of a reason to fear the worst. Do you recall the case of the modokibetamon and how he attacked you with nary a word? Who is to say the other rookies will not revolt in a similar fashion? Who's to say that Agumon will not march into this room ready to murder you without a warning?" That woke me up.

"Agumon would never do that," I argued, "He's the kind of guy who protects the weak; a true hero."

"Keep your idol worship out of serious discussions. I have no doubt in my mind that every single digimon that aimed for the capital was a righteous soul in their own right, yet they still transgressed. I would not be surprised if Agumon was turned astray in much the same way."

"Well how are you so sure it was Analogman who made that modokibetamon fight us? As I said. if Analogman wanted the rookies to revolt, he would have already done so. I understand that he might have caused the Insurgences because there's no other way to explain entire demographics changing behavior, but how is it any more believable that the modokibetamon was corrupted than the simple answer of he doesn't follow your hokey religion?"

"How dare you slander our perfect religion? Every digimon follows the doctrines of Lord Yggdrasil without exception."

"I find that really hard to believe. Every single digimon follows the same exact religion? There's no variation whatsoever? Take your phony 'Lord Yggdrasil' for instance. I went to a church, and I didn't even hear his name mentioned so much as once."

"You dare blaspheme Lord Yggdrasil? Of course no one is going to mention Lord Yggdrasil by name! Yggdrasil is a name unutterable by the common digimon, and it is only my privilege as a Digital God to do so!"

"God? Who? You? You're not a god."

"I am a god! I am a digimon who had digivolved to the highest level in a time where the Digital World was in turmoil and thus given divinity and the right to rule over the Eastern Digital World as long as I upheld the doctrines of the lord. What else am I to be called but a god?"

I know it was a rhetorical question, but I couldn't help but contemplate out loud, "I don't know. A follower? Maybe a theocratic monarch at best."

"I am far more than a king! I am the King of Kings! Forget Agumon. Forget ModokiBetamon. Forget Jijimon. I am far superior to any Digimon you can hope to name! My wisdom is infinite! If you were to transcribe all my knowledge, you could fill whole oceans and it would not be enough! How could you then doubt my judgment when you know that I know better?"

"You mean the same 'judgment' that thought it 'wise' to get the whole city to think I'm crazy?" I asked while rolling my eyes, "Even if there was something to back up your so-called 'wisdom', I'm still not buying your claim that your a god. If you really want me to leave, why don't you make me? I'm just a weak little in-training digimon that's stuck at the bottom of the food chain."

"..."

"But you can't, can you? God wouldn't even have to lift a finger to get a scrawny eleven-year-old boy to do his bidding, and that's why I can never except your claim to be a god. You don't have the power to change a situation with just a word. You don't have something amazing like the whole universe bending to your will. You don't even have the power to get _me_ to do what you want. All you have is the power to yell _very_ annoyingly!"

"..." I had never heard Qinglongmon being so quiet before.

Unbelievable. I couldn't believe I had finally silenced the so-called 'god'. Now if only I knew how to do that during public settings. These were my last thoughts before I nodded off to sleep.

* * *

At least that was the plan. Unfortunately, there were three things that made sleeping rather difficult. The first was, of course, my fight with Qinglongmon. I got really angry when he blasphemed the Lord so I might have said some cruel things on impulse. I was starting to regret some of the things said, especially since, now that I had the time to think about it, the conversation before the fight was pretty significant. I still maintained my position on whether or not I should fight. When you're this weak, nobody's going to ask you to pick up a sword, especially when you have no hands. Though I didn't want to believe that a righteous digimon like Agumon would suddenly become an aggressor, I couldn't deny the possibility. As soon as I realized this, my paranoia increased greatly. What if I wake up in the morning to a whole slew of digimon ready to kill me?

My paranoia wasn't helped in the slightest by the second thing: the darkness. Ever since I was a child, I was scared of the dark, or worse being alone in the dark, and unfortunately for me, my constant companion throughout the day had decided to give me the silent treatment leaving me effectively alone in the dark. I would have just turned on the light like I normally do when I want to sleep, but this room had no light switch, or at least none that were easily visible, so I had to bear with the images and sounds my mind couldn't help but conjure out of paranoia. It was to the point that I could not distinguish the third thing from another one of my fear-induced hallucinations.

The third thing was the foot steps slowly approaching my room and as they came closer and closer, it was harder to convince myself that they were anything but real.

"Ah!" I shouted as my head-body complex was shish kebab-ed by the intruder. I followed the trail of my flow of data to see my impaler, colors dulled by the darkness of the room. "Agumon? Why are you trying to kill me Agumon?"

Agumon had a look of surprise when I asked him that. I guess he thought he would have killed me in one blow. He didn't answer my question as he opened his mouth with data gathering in it in the shape of a fireball. Rays of orange light illuminated the dark room making it easier to see things, but this didn't comfort me in the slightest.

"Qinglongmon, are you there? What am I supposed to do?" I asked, hoping he would have a solution.

"..." but he said nothing.

I wanted to run, but my muscles wouldn't move as I began to sob, "Somebody! Anybody! Help! This guy's going to-!"

"Pepper Breath!" Agumon pulled his claw out of my body and fired off his signature attack before I could even move my body to avoid the attack. The data that flowed into him was a sure sign that...well I'll refrain from saying it for the sake of keeping a Y-7 rating.

* * *

The Insurgence of Rookies.

What was the Insurgence of Rookies?

How could I recount to you the Insurgence of Rookies?

How could I recount to you the Insurgence of Rookies? I was not there to witness that night. When the silence of the streets of the Rookie neighborhood set a warning light. And when the rookies formerly resting in their houses were far from sight. Was there none that saw these signs and anticipated this plight?

How could I recount to you the Insurgence of Rookies? I was not there to see the hostile destruction of the church. When the proudest monument of File City was leveled and torched. When digimon were senselessly slaughtered in front of their Lord who forbade it by the digital scourge. When the slain digimon sacrificed their last breath to curse their murderers as to them their data converged.

How could I ever hope to recount to you the Insurgence of Rookies? I was not there to witness that massacre. When the streets of the neighborhood of in-training and fresh digimon was as lively as a day at town square. When the victimized digimon tried desperately to escape but were struck hard at their core. When others fought back but in return got violently gored. When others cried and begged for their lives to the hearts of the rookie digimon that failed to stir.

How could I then recount to you the Insurgence of Rookies? I was not among those who survived the fight in the streets. The ones who made a successful retreat. The ones who knew, to resolve the situation at City Hall, they'd need to meet. What was the expression of the survivors when they stepped in and realized Jijimon was gone? When sitting on the former mayor's chair was the city's strongest: Agumon? When they realized that despite all their efforts, the conclusion was foregone?

Oh Lord! How could I recount to them the Insurgence of Rookies? I was not there to witness the terror. When the digimon's once leader, Jijimon stepped into the fracas to better the odds of the survival of the fresh and in-Training digimon; however, it soon became apparent his plans had an error. No matter how hard one person fought, he could never hope to be one hundred people's protector. So, to insure the lives of the many, he prostrated and gave himself up like a beggar. The horror! The horror!

How could I recount to you the Insurgence of Rookies?

How could such a serious event have a name that sounds so silly?

If only I had witnessed it, I would have named it "The Conquest of File City".


	3. So It Has Been Decreed

**A/N** : I know I said I would try not to make another author's note, but this is kind of important. To make it brief, re-read the second chapter before you read this one if you read it before this update as I changed my mind regarding how I was going to spread this story out. At first, I was thinking of splitting chapters in parts of a couple thousand words so that I wouldn't threaten new readers, but I changed my mind. First, because a large chapter count would have the same effect and second, because I wanted every chapter to be an episode and the previous format didn't match with my definition of an episode. According to me, an episode should be a series of connected events that are resolved in some way at the end. As a result, I have joined the former second and third episodes as their plots bleed into each other.

The second change is more minor. I've changed the rating from K+ to T. At first I thought a K+ rating was fine because, from what I've seen of the story, things shouldn't get much worse than Tamers, but Tamers is not exactly the best thing to base your standard on, so I changed it to T to be on the safe side.

* * *

 **The Third Episode**

 _So It Has Been Decreed_

If I had a nickel for every time I died...well I guess it only happened two times so far, but don't you find it weird how they all happened on the same day?

The weirdness factor doesn't even end there. Both deaths could have been prevented were it not for my near obsession with the digimon involved. I didn't have to retrieve that v-pet in my apartment building and similarly, I didn't have to stay at Agumon's house. Qinglongmon had already warned me of the possibility of this happening, but I refused to believe a digimon that I "worshipped as a hero"—though I hate saying it that way—would turn into a common murderer.

Both deaths were directly caused by fire. Does it even surprise anyone when I say I have a fear of fire? Yet, in both cases, because of the first similarity, I more or less walked blindly into it.

And in both deaths, when I somehow regained consciousness I found myself in an empty space with darkness surrounding me. Was it a coincidence? Almost certainly, but you know. It's just like I said: weirdness.

There were some big differences that were worthy of mention. It's true that no matter where I turned, there was nothing but darkness, but it didn't feel endless like Qinglongmon's world. In fact, all I needed to do was turn my body and crack! I reached the edge of the world. In fact this world seemed to be pretty fragile as that aforementioned turn created a rip that allowed a few rays of light to flood in.

Another difference was the noticeable lack of silence. In Qinglongmon's world, I could only hear the screams of Analogman, who Qinglongmon constantly described as an "anomaly". Here, I could easily decipher the sounds of the surroundings: the whooshing of the wind, the rustling of the leaves, and the bumping of things hitting the ground. It was like being inside a tent on a camping trip. It gave the impression that my "world" was actually pretty small.

"Analog, get out of the egg!" Came the annoying voice of Qinglongmon.

Egg? Oh, right. Digimon turn back into digieggs after they die so the franchise can keep it's Y-7 rating. So that's what was happening. But, I couldn't leave this egg. I didn't want to.

"Analog, I know you can hear me. Get out of of the egg!" Qinglongmon repeated.

"Who's Analog? My name's Hiro."

"Is that why you're not listening to me, Analog? I'd like you to tell me where you'd find a hero so petty. Get out of the egg!"

I filtered him out. That wasn't the reason I didn't want to leave, but the real reason was too embarrassing to say, especially to an arrogant guy like him. The truth was that I was afraid of going out of my tiny egg-shaped world. If I did die, I was almost certain that I would reincarnate, but death was a scary thing.

"Get out of the egg! We won't achieve anything if you stay any longer!" Qinglongmon shouted once again.

He just wouldn't stop. He was like a nagging mother with the only difference being that, in this case, I knew I was right.

"For the sake of Lord Yggdrasil, Analog! Get out of this egg, or I swear I'll—!"

"You'll what?" I asked finally having had enough, "What can you do? Keep me up at night? Scream until I get a headache? I'd rather suffer that than go outside!"

"Why?"

"...I'm scared, alright? I don't want to die again," I said swallowing my pride for the sake of ending the conversation.

I knew that my actions were very constricted in the digiegg. I couldn't talk to other people, and I couldn't play games, but if the digiegg was anything, it was safe. I'd trade anything if it meant not having to suffer the agony of death a third time.

"...Oh Lord Yggdrasil, gaze upon the one who doubts my infinite wisdom." To my surprise, Qinglongmon didn't jeer at me. "It is naïve of you to believe you are any safer inside this egg than out. The comfort you feel is but an illusion. Verily, if there was a digimon willing to disobey his Lord and slay his fellow digimon without consent, it would be done so with no discrimination, be it the young or the old, the weak or the strong, the born or the unborn. Now get out of this egg."

I wasn't entirely convinced. It sounded like a good argument when he was saying it, but from what I knew of Digimon, it didn't make sense. In the show, digimon were never attacked in their digieggs. Even if you made the argument that a digimon would want to fight something that couldn't fight back, wasn't the main point of battle the collection of data? How much data could an unhatched digimon have? I stuck to my guns, and snuggled up in my digiegg for just a little longer.

When a decent amount of time had passed, Qinglongmon continued, "Indeed, you are in far greater danger inside this egg than outside. Inside this egg, there is nothing to defend you from the hostile digimon nearby."

"Hostile digimon? How do you know it's hostile?" I asked falling into his pace.

"I can sense his data. His digicore appears to be that of an insectoid digimon, but I also see traces of plant data among others, which suggests that he has killed many digimon and absorbed their data."

Chirp! Please no. Not this again. "What do I do?"

"If you want to escape, there's no other way. You have to get out of your egg."

"But, I can't-"

"Are you still willing to say stuff like that when your life's on the line?"

"...Will I be able to recover my egg if I destroy it?"

"No."

"...Okay fine. I'll do it," I finally conceded. I charged right into the the crack I had made before and exited the digiegg. As soon as I left, the digiegg shattered into bits of data and was absorbed into my body.

I looked up and down, then left and right, but I found no trace of the digimon Qinglongmon was warning me about. "Where is he?"

"Who?"

"The digimon!"

"Oh, the digimon? He's nearby?"

"How are you so calm? Tell me what I'm supposed to do!"

"It's nice to see you're finally listening to me, but relax. The digimon is sleeping," Qinglongmon said nonchalantly.

"What?" My brain instantly crashed from its adrenaline high as I sat there stiff as a statue in shock. "You said I was in danger. You lied!" I said through bitter tears.

"I didn't lie. All I said was that there was a hostile digimon nearby, not whether or not he was going to attack you."

Semantics! Did he really think I would just let it go? "Did you even consider that maybe I wouldn't have been attacked if I'd just stayed in that egg?"

"How dare you talk down to me? I'm a god! Trust that, in my infinite wisdom, I know the best course of action."

"What infinite wisdom? What god? You're not a god! Despite your status as a supposed 'god', didn't we still die and reincarnate just like any other digimon?"

"Darn it, Analog! I get it already! I no longer have the power of a god!" Qinglongmon exploded to my surprise like a balloon squeezed to the point it popped. The atmosphere breathed for a bit as the mood began to recover. "Look around you and tell me what you see."

Was this a test? Although, even if he asked me to do that, all I could see were the same even grass and short little trees representative of the forest I found myself in when I first came into the Digital World. Well, there was something extra: digieggs scattered around as far as the eye could see. Some "stood" while many others were tilted on their side producing a bumping sound whenever they did.

But so what? "All I see are a bunch of digieggs."

"Judging from the data of the digieggs, I can estimate their age. That, in combination with the sheer quantity, suggests that they died in a recent mass murder. The most likely culprit is..."

"You don't mean..." Neither of us finished our sentences. It wasn't hard to guess that Agumon and maybe the other rookies didn't stop with just our death.

"So that means Jijimon, Yuramon, Tanemon..."

"Probably destroyed in much the same way you were."

At this revelation, I couldn't control my body from rolling. I didn't even know which direction I was heading in. I just picked a random direction and stuck with it in the vain hope that I would somehow make it to File City. It didn't take long before my hopes were tragically dashed. I couldn't even move one meter without crashing into a bush because of the hairs that constantly obscured my vision.

"Analog, what are you doing?"

"I have to go check! They might still be alive! Chirp! Why do these hairs keep flying in my face?" I said with growing frustration. This wasn't a problem before I died.

"Then what are you going to do when you get there? Die again?" Qinglongmon scolded me.

My once frantic body froze at the mention of death.

"Do you think that you're the only one who feels bitter at the turn of events? You are an anomaly; naturally unattached to the Digital World. At best, attached to those few digimon who saved you in what was sure to be your final moments. What about me? I am their god with the sworn duty of protecting law and order!"

"I-I thought you said you weren't a god."

"Clean your ears, Analog! I said I don't have the _power_ of a god. I still hold responsibility over my subjects. Do you know it? Do you know the frustration I feel at not possessing the power to defeat Analogman? Or my frustration at knowing what was to come, but not being able to prevent it? Oh Lord Yggdrasil, I could not even protect this pitiful body!"

Before this time, I had no idea that Qinglongmon was shouldering such a burden. He'd always sounded so proud that it felt like everything was going to be okay, but as a Sovereign of the Digital World, he did feel a responsibility to protect the digimon. What if that responsibility could no longer go fulfilled? And the worst part was that I was no help at all.

"Sorry Qinglongmon. I should have left Agumon's house when you told me to," I apologized in guilt.

"It would not have made the least amount of difference," Qinglongmon replied somberly, "At your last moments before your death at the hands of Agumon, you turned towards me for aid, but I could not help you. Do you understand? I could not even hope to protect our weak, pitiful body let alone the lives of several other in-training digimon. If you had escaped, it would have at best insured our own safety, but how could I then call myself the Sovereign of the Eastern Digital World when I allow my subjects to die at my expense?"

I began to sob in front of the eggs as Qinglongmon continued, realizing my own powerlessness to do anything but provide prayer for the deceased lives that treated me as if I had always been in their care.

"Verily, I am a god. I have to be a god. If not me, there will be no one to stand up to the Analogman, but I, even in my infinite wisdom, cannot find a fitting solution when I lack the power to match my stature. Similarly, I cannot let such a great act of injustice go unpunished."

"What are we supposed to do? We're not strong enough."

"You're right. This body is weaker than ever before, but you forget that I am a god, at least in mind. I possess servants who even alone have the power to overturn this situation. Rather than flaunt our lack of power at File's capital, we shall head towards the Eastern Sovereign's Palace!"

"Alright, just tell me where to go."

"Well," Qinglongmon suddenly became sheepish, "I'm not exactly certain on how to get to the Eastern Palace from here."

"What? You sounded so sure of your plan. Now you're telling me that you don't even know where your own palace is?"

Qinglongmon humphed, "To my credit, it's been millennia since I've stepped outside of my world. Excuse me for having a shaky memory."

"Fine then. Now what are we supposed to do?"

"Train."

"Train?" Then I remembered him mentioning cultivating this body into a Sovereign's yesterday. "How long will it take to become a Sovereign?"

"I don't know. One millennium? Two? You start losing count after the first six centuries."

Did he really expect me to train with him for two millennia? "You can't be serious. You don't really think the rookie digimon would wait that long, right?"

"We don't have to become a Sovereign, at least not now. The main objective is getting in touch with my Devas. It's just that we'll have a smoother time getting there if we can stand to take a couple of blows. Then we'll ask a digimon for directions. Since this area lies under my domain, I have a lot of followers here, so there must be someone who knows among them."

I figured that it was eventually going to come down to training. I personally didn't like fighting, but even I knew that it was better to be strong so that people didn't take advantage of your weakness. "So what do I have to do first," I asked dejectedly.

"First, work on your maneuverability. When a digimon is as weak as you, it becomes necessary to know how to skillfully escape. For our first practice. Yes, why don't you just go from here to the other side of the clearing without touching any of the eggs?"

As per instructed, I rolled through the digimon breeding grounds, but, just like last time, hairs got in the way of my eyes making it impossible to see. I was eventually stopped when I collided with a rather large bush. I had circled back to where I started. "Why do hairs keep getting in my eyes? This wasn't a problem before I died." I then sat still, with all spirits crushed. "Qinglongmon, I can't do this. There has to be another way."

"Did I tell you to roll?"

I was lost. "Then what am I supposed to do?"

"Float, you idiot!"

"Float? Have you gone bonkers? Don't ask the impossible!"

"Float! You're a yuramon! All yuramon float!"

Wait, I was a yuramon? Well, I never understood how yuramon floated, but I thought that perhaps the power was all in the body. So against my better judgment, I strained every muscle in my tiny body to force my Ki downwards in hopes of some "Dragon Ball Z"-esque miracle. All I got was a tiny accident. Well, that's embarrassing.

"Well that was...enlightening to say the least," Qinglongmon said with awkward surprise. I wanted to cry. "Alright, no floating. You can at least hop. All fresh and in-training digimon can hop."

Oh, yeah. That's true. I remember seeing the fresh and in-training digimon, sans Yuramon and Tanemon, hopping from place to place. Just when I was about to attempt it, I contemplated how to go about doing it and realized that it was impossible. It simply could not be done. When a normal human jumps, it's because they contract their muscles so much that, when they finally relax them, the upward force reacting to their downward force is large enough to push them upward. How could this rounded body do the same?

I decided there was nothing wrong with at least trying. This body did at the very least have tiny muscles underneath all that chub. How could I roll if there wasn't? I felt around for all the muscles in direct contact with the ground, and, upon location, I contracted and relaxed them like a person attempting to jump. It was far more successful than I thought it would be! I came up a whole millimeter off the ground!

"Qinglongmon, this just isn't working," I whined.

"What? You can't even do something this simple?" Bite me. Qinglongmon sighed as he continued, "Fine, this is going to be harder than I thought. For now, roll around like a newborn infant until you find a body of water. Your scat-covered hairs are giving me great disgust."

Before I could even argue back, our conversation was interrupted by the rustling of leaves. I tilted my head upwards to look at whatever it could be, and that's how I met _him_ for the first time. His skin, normally a pale yellow was darkened by the shade of the bush as he coiled around to slowly approach my level. "Do you have any food," he said in a raspy voice that I thought only television villain's could possess.

"N-no," I said simply, my fear not allowing me to say anything else. Was this the digimon Qinglongmon was talking about?

"That's fine," he said with mischief apparent in his voice, "you look delicious enough on your own."

No! Not again! I just died! I knew protesting would be futile, so I closed my eyes awaiting certain death, but when I opened my eyes I found myself very much alive with the worm-like digimon no longer gradually coming to my level. If anything, he was backing off.

"What's that horrible smell? What did you do, roll around in your own dung? I can't eat you!" The digimon shouted in disgust.

Did you see that guys? I won my first battle! And it was so beautifully done, I didn't even have to lift a finger! Hehehe...Hah...Well at least I was safe.

"Well, it has been a while since my last meal, and it doesn't seem like these other eggs are hatching anytime soon," the digimon said as if in contemplation, "Come on. We'll go over to the river and get you washed. Then, maybe I can get some digishrooms along the way and turn you into a fine stew."

Chirp. I spoke too soon.

* * *

"Analog, get away from this kunemon right now. I refuse to be in the presence of this transgressor," Qinglongmon said as the kunemon and I were strolling westward towards the stream.

"I don't know if I can," I said back. Realizing that I had responded out loud, I turned to give an excuse to the kunemon, but he just kept slithering forward undeterred as if he didn't hear me.

The kunemon had actually been ignoring me since I started following him. Well that was convenient in the likely scenario that Qinglongmon tried to talk to me again. The real question was whether or not I could just sneak away. It's not like he was paying me any attention.

I didn't take any extra consideration in being particularly stealthy. I just gradually started lagging behind until I made it to his blind spot and hid into the trees. The trees didn't have much foliage so my odds of getting stuck were negligible, but they were low hanging enough to hide my tiny body. Somehow, I still ended up crashing into something, or rather someone.

"Where do you think you're going?" The kunemon said villainously, towering over my tiny figure. How did he get there?

"U-um..." I couldn't think of an excuse fast enough.

"Electro Thread!" Spider-like silk spewed forward from the kunemon's beak-like mouth and coiled around me.

"W-what is this?" I asked in shock.

"Just a little insurance in case you try to run off again. If you move, you'll get shocked. I kept it weak so that you don't get cooked too quickly, but it should be enough to get the point across."

I took his word for it. I'm pain intolerant for the most part. The journey continued, but this time with me being dragged by the thread in his mouth. There was no quick exit in sight. I was almost certainly going to be eaten.

I choked back the tears that came with that revelation. I couldn't drop dead like a tuna yet. I still had a plan. I would befriend him. Friends don't eat friends, right? Now, I just needed to think of how to go about doing it...

"M-my name's Hiro," I said introducing myself with a shaky voice.

"Really? I thought your name was Breakfast- I mean Yuramon," the kunemon replied. How scary.

"S-so what's your name?"

He didn't so much as turn to give any indication that he'd heard me, but he answered me anyways, "Kunemon."

Well that conversation didn't help much.

"I already told you he was a kunemon," Qinglongmon chided me.

"Well, I don't know. Maybe his name could have been something different," I argued back confident that Kunemon wouldn't mind.

"You idiot! Every digimon is named after their species as per the decree of Lord Yggdrasil."

"Since he's going around eating other digimon, it doesn't really seem like he cares about the orders of Yg—er, how do you pronounce that? I thought he might be exempt from that."

"Your ignorance continues to astound me. Digimon were already called by the names of their species long before a god reigned above them. Yggdrasil merely codified it."

"Can you blame me? It seems like a big inconvenience from my perspective. What if there were two or three or four agumon in the same room?"

"Then they would be assigned names "Agumon 1", "Agumon 2", "Agumon 3", and "Agumon 4" respectively depending on position from up to down and left to right."

"No, why would you bother—"

"You've been talking to yourself for a while now," Kunemon interrupted, "I thought you were making prayers to Yggdrasil at first, but your words aren't matching up. Do you have a virus or something? I would hate to get sick right from the first meal of the day."

Yes, a chance. I could use this as an excuse! No wait. That would be lying. Or does Qinglongmon count as a virus? "No, I don't have a virus. I'm just talking to Qinglongmon," I said telling the truth.

Luckily, in this case, it wouldn't make me look crazy. As much as I refute it, Qinglongmon is definitely revered as a god; case in point being my argument with Tokomon. It's normal to pray to a god when you're moments away from death.

The best part about the interruption was that _he_ initiated the conversation. I was honestly at a loss as to how to get his attention after that flubbed introduction, but now it was time to move on to Infallible Plan Number 2: Engaging Conversation.

Behold! My peerless prattling prowess! "S-so what do you like to do, Kunemon?" I asked him. It was a brilliant move on my part. There was no person that didn't like to talk about the things that interest them.

Kunemon kept slugging forward as he answered, "When I was younger, I used to like eating the leaves of bushes."

"And now?"

"I like eating the little baby digimon sleeping under them."

Code Red! Code Red! I had to change the subject. "Um, this is a pretty large clearing. It's not just that. The grass is so even and the trees are so neat. It's almost as if somebody's been maintaining the forest."

"It's not 'almost as if', between the fifty or so digimon settled here, there better be somebody keeping the forest in shape, or else it wouldn't be usable. I personally eat an estimated sixty-eight pounds of leaves every night before sleeping it off during the day."

"Oh, so you're nocturnal. Then, why are you awake right now?"

"Because _somebody_ kept banging into my bush and shouting loudly even though it's morning," Kunemon said with noticeable menace.

Oh no! Code Red II (The Sequel)! I didn't know he wasn't a morning person! Fine, new plan. I would lighten the mood up with a joke, and, hopefully, he'd be too busy laughing to eat me.

"Hey, Kunemon. Do you know why six is afraid of seven?" I asked, getting the first joke that popped into my head.

"...No, why?" Kunemon asked back. At first I was surprised that he hadn't heard this joke before, but I suppose he wasn't really the joking sort.

"Because seven—" No wait. I really didn't think this through...

"Seven? What about seven? Seven is the number before eight...Oh, I get it!" I could hear the mirth in his voice and I thought my heart would stop right there, "Because seven eight nine. Mm...ate. Hehehe."

Okay, it's official. I couldn't make a friend to save my life. Mom, if you're watching over me from Heaven, a little help would be nice.

"Halt!" came two voices at once. Was this the answer to my prayer? In front of us were two modokibetamon guarding an...outhouse? No, the wooden shack was decoratively painted and the toilet obviously had plumbing. It was like a bathroom, but with just a toilet...in the middle of a forest.

In response to the modokibetamon's cries, well, Kunemon didn't respond to the modokibetamon's cries. He just kept going along straight ahead to where I assumed the river was.

"We said halt! You are trespassing on Lord Palmon's Toilet Empire. If you wish to advance, you must pay the toll, or we'll have to respond with force," ModokiBetamon 1 warned us. Oh, what do you know? That system is pretty convenient.

"Kunemon, I think you should listen to them," I pleaded to Kunemon.

To my surprise, Kunemon did stop, but it wasn't because of my words. Something they said caught his interest. "Lord Palmon was it? But I'm the owner of this domain."

"Yeah, and yuramon don't float," ModokiBetamon 2 said with full on sarcasm. I was right there, you know? "Now hand over five hundred bits and nobody has to get hurt."

Kunemon ignored them and renewed his original slithering pace. I could see the raw fury on the modokibetamon's faces. "Kunemon, I really think you should stop," I warned him yet again.

This time he took no heed. "It's too early for this. Dealing with these losers is a waste of my precious time."

No! Don't provoke them. ModokiBetamon 2 was the first to blow his lid. "Is that a challenge?" he shouted feeling scorned. We were met with the familiar sight of lightning crackling around his dorsal fin before it was discharged all at once in Kunemon's direction. "Electro Shock!"

Kunemon wasted no time with his response. He opened his mouth and shouted, "Electro Thread!" causing another thread of silk, separate from the one holding me captive, to gush forth onto the ground in front of us. The lightning was redirected to the thread like a lightning rod much to the shock and amazement of the modokibetamon.

Not giving the modokibetamon time to recover, Kunemon fired two more rounds of "Electro Thread" encasing the pair in balls of silk.

Kunemon slithered slowly towards ModokiBetamon 1 with a noticeable aura of victory around him. "What made you think you could stop me on _my_ turf?" Kunemon interrogated.

"We're seri—Ah!—we really didn't kn—Oh!—that you were he—Yah!," came the answer of ModokiBetamon 1.

"Hm? Well, I guess I do only come out during night time," Kunemon mused to himself. "So who is this Lord Palmon?"

"We'll never te—Ah!" ModokiBetamon 1 started, but never got through the entire sentence. Seriously, just stop struggling!

"Well aren't you stubborn?" Kunemon instead shifted his focus to interrogating ModokiBetamon 2. "So who is this Lord Palmon?" he repeated.

"S-she just came tod—Ah!—and she's already conquered the la—Oh Lord!—near the toilet," ModokiBetamon 2 answered in his partner's stead.

"Hm...I don't like that one bit. That means my headquarters are next. Where is this Lord Palmon?"

Nobody answered.

"Come on. This question's for anybody."

Nobody answered.

"You better give me an answer before I get to one, or else I'll eat you up. Ten, nine..."

Nobody answered. No wait, let me guess. They shocked themselves into a coma, didn't they?

"Three, two, and one. Time's up! Well don't say I didn't warn you." No, wait! Wake up guys!

Kunemon went up to them and...I personally believe any further description would be too graphic to maintain a Y-7 rating. Dear Lord, was this what was destined for me?

"You crook! They had already lost. You didn't have to delete them." I didn't say that, but that was probably the first moment my thoughts synced up with Qinglongmon's.

After Kunemon had done the deed, he turned to me and said, "I guess I really don't need to eat you anymore." Could you blame me if I said that got my hopes up? Then he immediately crushed my hopes by saying, "You do hold a special place in my heart, though. Alright, since I'm staying up for the rest of the day to go after that palmon anyways, I'll just save you for lunch."

Why me? Why did it have to be me?

* * *

"And this is the river. Wash up nicely. Soak up for an hour, but I wouldn't mind it if you went for the full two hours. It's easier on me when my food's soggy. If I don't come back by then, get the digishrooms on your own and start up the fire, but not any time before then. Cooking food yourself is half the fun. Meanwhile, I'll hunt down that palmon who thinks she can just waltz in here and take land from _me_ , the undisputed feudal lord of Native Forest. Understand?" Kunemon directed.

"Okay," I said to get him off my back. Yeah, I understood what he said, but I'd like to see the person who would willingly cook themselves.

"Analog, don't you dare get eaten by that kunemon!" Qinglongmon commanded forcefully after he left.

"I wasn't planning on it," I reassured him.

"Then how do you intend to avoid your certain fate?"

"..." I had no ready-made answer. The simple answer would be "train", but there was no guarantee, or rather, it would be impossible to reach his level in the span of two hours. I was caught at a dead end.

"Jump into the river," Qinglongmon commanded at last after the long silence.

I did it. I rolled into the river. I was going to do it anyways to clean myself, but between the orders of Qinglongmon and Kunemon, my independence was really getting put in question, wasn't it? It didn't take too long after I entered before I realized something: rivers flow.

"Blub. Blub." I believe I was saying something to Qinglongmon, but I can't remember what it was. At any rate, I was drowning.

I somehow managed to make it back up to shore since I didn't go too far off the coast, and, through my panting, Qinglongmon had the audacity to say, "I didn't say get out. Get back in there."

"Are you out of your mind? I could have drowned!" I argued. I already had lots to be afraid of. Did he really want to add hydrophobia to the list?

"Are you an idiot? You can't drown. You're a yuramon."

"Ah, this again. Look, just because you keep saying, 'All yuramon can float,' doesn't make it any more scientif—" I stopped myself. When I thought about it, going off of my apparent mass and volume...

I rolled back into the river. Oh. What do you know? I was actually floating.

"Great. Now, go against the flow. This will exercise you're resilience and speed."

Easier said than done. How did he really expect me to do that? I had no limbs to push the water back with. Sure I had some tiny muscles that could work, but I doubted they had the power to propel me forward; especially with this current. I tried it anyways just to humor Qinglongmon, and, to my surprise, I did far better than I thought I would! I managed to slow the rate the river was pushing me back by a whole millimeter per second!

"Qinglongmon, I can't do this," I whined.

"Well, bloody tell me what you expect me to do about it. It's not my fault you're a bad student," Qinglongmon whined back. Hey, I wasn't a bad student. He was just a bad teacher.

The river had finally dumped me into a rather large lake and I was fortunate enough to drift onto shore. Looking upon the sand, it was obvious to me that I had exited the forest. By a stroke of luck, I had gotten off the menu. In relief, I did that awkward cross between sitting and standing fresh and in-training digimon had to do as I was struggling to regain my strength. Despite what my lackluster performance would suggest, I really did exert my muscles to the fullest.

"Analog, what are you doing? We're not finished yet!" Qinglongmon scolded me.

"Yes, I am. I'm dead tired after what I've experienced this morning." I barely even finished my sentence before I collapsed out of exhaustion and relief on the white, sandy beach. Extra points for annoying Qinglongmon.

* * *

When I woke up, the sun was right above my head signaling that it was afternoon, or more specifically, lunch time. I tried to imagine his face after he realized his lunch had been cast away, but I found it hard to think of a face aside from his neutral, anything-goes countenance.

"...Analog, you better wake up right this instant! You're killing daylight! How long do you think it's going to take before we avenge the injustice brought to us at this rate?" Was Qinglongmon still shouting? Sheesh, don't blow a fuse slave driver.

"I'm awake. I'm awake," I said to get him to stop. Although, I am curious to see how long he would have kept going.

"Finally. Do you really think you're going to get results if you just laze around? Go forward and look around for a sturdy structure like a large stone or a thick tree. That will be the focus of our next attempt at training."

It's not like I was napping just because I wanted to. Your methods of training are too extreme for this body. I tried to move , but an empty feeling in my stomach restricted me from all manner of movement. "I'm too hungry." I hadn't eaten anything since I was reborn. I'm actually surprised I lasted this long. It must have been the stress of knowing you were going to be eaten at any moment.

"Move, Analog."

"Ugh..." I didn't even have the energy to protest.

"Hey, Analog, there are some digishrooms right behind you."

"Really!" At the mention of food, I couldn't help but dash to the location Qinglongmon directed me to. I was so excited when I finally found the digishroom, I didn't even notice the trail of saliva dangling from my mouth. Then with a chomp, the digishroom had found a better pace deep in the pit of my stomach, but it wasn't enough! I looked eagerly left and right, dashing back and forth hoping to discover more digishrooms to satisfy my hunger, but the only thing I discovered was how heartbroken I could become when I realized "some" digishrooms really only meant one.

"Qinglongmon, you lied to me! You said there were 'some'. You know, as in more than one."

"Well, it's not exactly like there are eyes in the back of your head. I can only see what you see, you know? As far as I knew, there were no digishrooms, but I had to say something to get you moving, or else you would have starved to death."

I choked back my bitter tears. He was right. I was better off walking around in search of that stone or whatever and finding a digishroom by chance than just sitting around there moping. It was then that I noticed several peculiarities, one being the fact that I could walk in the first place.

"Whoa! Where did these feet come from?" I asked in surprise.

"Huh? When did you digivolve? That's something that normally occurs after a year not a mere six hours from birth," Qinglongmon said apparently just as surprised as I was.

"I digivolved?" I asked in glee, "What am I?"

"Was it truly that easy to digivolve nowadays? I guess I haven't been paying attention to the digimon as closely as I should have. But then why didn't the other digimon in File City digivolve? Huh? ...Oh, you're a tanemon now. Excuse me while I ponder this strange happening."

Awesome! I digivolved for the first time! It was a little lame that it happened while I was sleeping. That would never fly in the show. But at least I digivolved into one of the few in-training digimon with feet. The sudden development of feet was low on the things I wished to comment on, however. The second peculiarity was, of all things, a PC representative of the 90s.

"Why is there a PC in a world made by the interconnection of PCs? It just seems kind of weird to me," I remarked.

"What do you mean 'world made by the interconnection of PCs'?" Qinglongmon asked back. Wait, he didn't know? Even though he kept pulling up random computer terminology?

"...Never mind," I said deciding to drop it. That question of his would only lead to a very complicated conversation. To begin with, there was no clear proof that this Digital World was the same as the show. The more important question was whether or not the PC worked. I had already been in the Digital World for a day and a half with no indication of getting closer to coming back home. It honestly wouldn't have been a problem if I had actually died, but since I'm technically alive, it would be nice to have access to my Neopets account.

For the sake of brevity, I'll say that no, it did not work. All that booting up did was pop out a floppy disk from the disk drive somehow and show a pretty surreal screensaver of a flying toaster, and there was no mouse to exit out of the screensaver. I tried ramming into the computer a bunch of times, but it just made it get worse! Now the flying toasters were being harassed by ducks.

Just when I was about to give up, Qinglongmon stopped me. "Hurry up and pick up the disk!" he commanded.

"Why should I?"

"Don't you know what this is?"

"No. Should I?"

"Ah, fortune is wasted on the ignorant. It's an omnipotent, useful for fully restoring HP and MP."

"What's HP and MP?"

"That's simple. HP and MP are...er...well, they're quantitative values that make battle possible. A digimon is deleted when their HP hits zero and loses their ability to attack when their MP hits zero."

"Oh," I responded simply. I could understand that it was quite the convenient object, but at that time, I couldn't completely understand how it related to me. It was like a game of connect the dots that didn't make a pretty picture.

I tried picking it up with my newly developed feet, but I quickly realized that wasn't going to work out. Remembering how inventory worked in the Digital World, I bit down on the disk and the disk separated into chunks of data that were quickly absorbed into my body.

I didn't linger too long on the matter of the omnipotent because my mind was already occupied by the third peculiarity: the vending machine right beside the PC.

It was not any stranger than the PC, so I didn't ask Qinglongmon about it even though I wanted to do it by instinct. I probably would have just gotten one of his many non-answers. I inspected the vending machine, and unexpectedly it seemed to function just like a normal vending machine with meat and digimushrooms on display. For the hungry me, it was too attractive to pass up. The only complication was that one, I had no money, and two, there was no place to insert said money, but I remained persistent.

"Qinglongmon, how are you supposed to use this?"

"You need to insert some bits. It appears that for the meat, it would be three hundred, and for the digishrooms, it would be six hundr—Wait a second. That's blatant fraud! Both of these are easily only worth one hundred bits. You're better off just looking around for a digishroom."

"But what if I never find one?" I whined.

"I will not bend on this matter. Bits are not to be wasted."

"Well, it's not like I have any bits to waste in the first place."

"That's where you're wrong. Every digimon has bits. It's what makes us up. The typical in-training digimon himself has upwards of around six hundred bits, but I do not recommend wasting it. It will slow down our development."

"I can't develop if I starve, can I?"

"...Fine. Must you always go into dramatics? All you need to do is select what you want and the bits will be automatically deducted from your inventory."

I did as instructed, and, as soon as I had, I was surrounded by a veil of blinding light. When it dissipated, I discovered a noticeable lack of my prided feet. I...digivolved backwards. Wish there was a catchier word for that. Well, as long as I got the meat, it would be all worth it.

Belch! There went the sound of shattered dreams. When I checked the take-out port for the item I spent half my life's earnings on, I discovered it had already been devoured by a slimy bottom feeder.

"You ate my meat!" I exclaimed angrily to the numemon. You do _not_ come between a starving boy and his meal.

Numemon came out to greet me."Sorry. Did you mean this?" Numemon snickered as he picked up some of his recently made sludge with some sort of extremity.

"Ignore him and roll away. Despite being champions, numemon are weak. He doesn't really want to fight you. He's just trying to scare you off," said Qinglongmon.

Really? Waving around a pile of sludge was supposed to be threatening? Well, I guess it was in its own way. I turned towards the direction of the forest to roll off like Qinglongmon had instructed.

"Where do you think you're going? Party Time!" Numemon shouted from behind me.

Squish! Perhaps just a square in front of me, appeared a swirl of chocolate ice cream just about the same size as my body. I was conflicted on whether or not I should say hello, but the smell was enough to convince me that I should run as far as the ends of the universe if it meant getting away from it.

"Party Time! Party Time!" Unfortunately, the numemon just wouldn't let me go. Was it too dumb to realize I didn't want to fight it?

"What gives, Qinglongmon? I did what you told me to," I whined.

"Maybe running had the opposite effect. I think he's recognized you as the rare opponent even he could defeat," Qinglongmon responded.

Chirp! I looked left and right for a proper hiding spot since I knew he wasn't going to stop any time soon, but it was pointless. His gelatinous body allowed him to easily travel through every gap and crevice. If I was to hide behind a rock, the stone would suddenly become a rusted brown and I was certain it wasn't due to spontaneous oxidation. If I was to hide behind a tree, it would suddenly become a muddy parasol. The grass was buried. The fresh and in-training digimon hiding within the trees were given something to cry over. Nothing was spared except for me, the one he was trying to hit. Was he a stormtroopermon in his past life?

"So what's the plan now, Qinglongmon?" I asked through bated breath.

"Don't you find it strange that there aren't any rookie level digimon to stop this situation? Since the forest is led by rookies, you'd assume that they would have already intervened on our behalf, but it's the contrary. We haven't even seen one rookie digimon thus far."

"Get to the point," I hurried him along. My body wasn't meant to be active for this long. I was approaching my limits.

"They're probably wherever Kunemon went off to fight Palmon. Find them and pass the burden along to them."

That was easier said than done. I had only been in this forest for a day, so I didn't recognize any landmarks. Well, except for one that I noticed just up ahead: the bathroom with just a toilet. I was half-tempted to just hide inside it since I'd find it quite ironic if a digimon willing to do his business wherever he walked would suddenly conform to doing it in a toilet. What stopped me was a sight even more serendipitous then finding this notable landmark: it was the giant, red mushroom hidden behind it. No, to the starving me, it was far more than that, which is why it's hard for me to find the right words for it. To me, it was like finding the morning sun after a prolonged night.

So, I reached for that mushroom, and, to my misfortune, Numemon took advantage of the retardation of my cycles to throw another devilish swirl. Guess what it hit. Let me give you a hint: Stormtroopermon didn't hit me.

"K-k...k-k...Gah!...k-k..." I sat there, tears threatening to stream my face.

"Now, Analog. There are other digishrooms to pick," Qinglongmon comforted me, but I took no heed.

"It's just why...Why does he always have to take away my food?" I shouted with my tears finally flowing freely, but that was far from the most spectacular event.

That was the moment when darkness hung over the focal point of Palmon's Toilet Empire. In that moment, all digimon in the vicinity could do nary, but stare. Even Numemon couldn't help but halt his offensive out of fear of what was to come, and he had a right to fear! In that moment, I had turned as dark as the surroundings and binary digits appeared rapidly changing as they were being updated. In that moment, free floating data was, for once, visible as it slowly morphed my form and added a shell of light to my darkened body.

When the light dissipated and the day recovered its blues, I was standing before Numemon as what I assumed to be a newly digivolved tanemon with no trace of the tears from beforehand. Then I subsequently, used my newly developed feet and revitalized health to run away even faster.

"Let's see...Kunemon went south, right?" I mumbled to myself.

"What are you doing, Analog? You were fortunate enough to digivolve twice in the same day. You should be able to deal with the situation by yourself. Numemon's attacks have almost no power behind them," Qinglongmon complained.

"What, you expected me to fight?" I asked while running, "I can't fight. You never taught me how. All I know is how to run away."

* * *

I kept running until I found a crowd of rookie level digimon. I didn't want to be killed right out of the blue, so I hid behind a tree waiting for Stormtroopermon to pop out at any time with sludge in hand, ready to provoke one of them into fighting him. However, no matter how long I waited, Numemon wouldn't pop out. Well, that was weird. Did I lose him at the bathroom? Well, since I was there, I decided to peek at what they were doing.

Whack! Whack! Whack! It was a scene far worse than I could ever imagine. The only reason the rookie digimon were spread out despite itching to get into the fight with Kunemon at the center was because another, more fearsome group had already called dibs. I think I felt my heart stop as I watched the redvegiemon pummel him over and over again with their spiked vines with every thump excreting bits of data out of many open wounds. I had to wonder if Kunemon himself was aware of the many holes that decorated his back like a colander as he kept up a retaliation effort in the heat of the moment.

"Electro Thread!" Kunemon shouted as a redvegiemon in front of him was about to pummel him. The ends of the redvegiemon's vines were enveloped in a white silky thread. The redvegiemon's attack was halted as it was paralyzed from the shock given by the thread and also perhaps the confusion of the moment. If I was to look closer, a redvegiemon from beside him had vines similarly decorated at the ends. When he whacked Kunemon, a manageable amount of data trickled from him, easily countable with the toes of my feet. The redvegiemon behind him, however, was not affected by the Electro Thread at all, but, curiously enough, he toppled over before he could even wind up his next attack.

"Poison Ride!" Kunemon shouted as he initiated the second part of his survival effort. The redvegiemon to the side of him had his strike rewarded with an ugly piercing from Kunemon's stinger. Then, Kunemon ignored him and moved on to other redvegiemon as if that particular one no longer bore a threat. Moments later, the redvegiemon toppled over. I zoomed out to see a ring of redvegiemon having already toppled over unconscious signifying how long this battle had been drawn out. Some groaned in pain while others dissipated into data that headed in the direction of where I was reborn, leaving behind what looked like a carrot with handlebars. To my surprise, this rookie level digimon was pulling off a pretty fair fight against these supposed champion level digimon. This was of course not going to satisfy the one who orchestrated the attack.

"Um...Can everybody else help get him out of here? There are only two hours until bedtime," requested a Palmon standing a distance away from the fracas. I didn't even notice her presence before she spoke. Her voice was timid, and her words were very inoffensive, yet the other rookie hordes of modokibetamon and what looked like a purple-flowered palmon obeyed her as if the words were said in the imperative.

The purple-flowered palmon extended their vine-like claws to root Kunemon in place while the modokibetamon sent along lightning bolt after lightning bolt and the remaining redvegiemon continued their assault. At this point, it became quite evident that any effort that Kunemon put towards retaliation was meaningless. His defeat was inevitable, an inevitability my former predator didn't seem ready to accept.

"Analog, help him. I can't stand to see such a barbaric act in front of me any longer," Qinglongmon ordered as the fight was approaching its climax.

I didn't respond as I stared at the carnage with widened eyes. He didn't really expect _me_ to do something Kunemon couldn't, did he?

"Analog, what are you doing? Go out there and help him," Qinglongmon asserted even stronger this time.

"What do you expect me to do? I'm only an in-training level digimon. I can't stand up to rookies and champions. I'll die for sure," I argued.

"You don't have to fight them. Do you remember that omnipotent you loaded into your inventory? All you need to do is use it on him and he'll be perfectly fine to return the abuse on his opponents ten-fold going off of his prior successes."

The omnipotent? That's right, it fully heals you. How would it be if, in a fight, your opponent was suddenly back at one hundred percent. However, there was one obvious flaw in Qinglongmon's plan. "How am I supposed to give it to him? He's smack in the center of it all. What if I get hit."

"They're not going to hit you. They're all focused on Kunemon. As soon as you give it to him, you can make a quick escape and I don't think anyone would go out of their way to pursue you," Qinglongmon persuaded.

I had my reservations. I had just died not even a day ago, and then I was being pressured to force myself into another risky situation. I don't think the average eleven-year-old should be exposed to the dilemma I was facing then. Why should I have to do this in the first place? It's not like Kunemon did anything worthy of risking my life over. He was the guy that was going to eat me a couple of hours ago for crying out loud. As sickening as it sounded, I should have been relieved to see him dying.

"Analog, I thought your name was 'Hero', right?" Qinglongmon said through the chaos of my mind, "In the Digital World, names have a significance as an identifier. A digimon's function is always consistent with their name, which is why a kunemon would be named Kunemon; because a kunemon can always inherently behave like a kunemon. If your name is Hero, then prove it. Save this kunemon who has been the victim of the savagery wrought on by Analogman."

Qinglongmon's words put some much needed resolution to the inner turmoil of my mind. I had finally reached a decision. "Never mind, you don't have to call me Hiro. I was never so grand of a person to be called hero material. Even in the real world, I was nowhere close. In fact, I was the exact opposite." I wouldn't save Kunemon. It wasn't my job.

* * *

The battle went on for a while after before Kunemon finally fell on his side incapable of resisting. The air was silent compared to the constant shouting of attacks from just moments before. Palmon, who had asked everyone to leave, adopted a peculiar sleeping pose where she rooted her feet in the ground and practically stood as she slept the night away. There was not even a peep as all the digimon from before had fled from the area presumably to sleep. All that remained was Kunemon whose data looked ready to split apart at any second.

I cautiously walked towards Kunemon after snacking on the super carrots that remained on the forest floor and loaded the omnipotent from my inventory. I couldn't exactly figure out an easy way to give it to him so I just force-fed it. I turned the other way prepared to run in the case the fight worked up Kunemon's appetite. Within a moment, Kunemon sprang into his proper orientation as if his earlier state was but an illusion.

"Thanks," Kunemon said, although it felt more like he said it out of obligation than anything else. He started slithering in the direction of his bush.

"That's it?" I asked incredulously. Before I did the act I had expected many things. I had considered that he might thank me to where I would have to humbly decline any reward. I had considered him eating me as soon as he recognized me. I had even considered him saying something like, "Foolish, human. I didn't need your help." Not once did I consider this level of indifference.

"What's the matter?" Kunemon asked, but he wouldn't stop so I had to run after him to continue the conversation.

"You almost died, right?"

"So I did."

"That's all you have to say?"

"Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose." No, this wasn't a win-some lose-some situation!

"Do you remember me?" I knew this wasn't something I should bring up for my own livelihood, but, at this point, I was desperate to draw out some kind of response from him.

"Hm? No, I don't remember seeing a tanemon today."

"I'm the yuramon from earlier."

"Oh, you were that close to digivolving? Now I really wish I had sunk my teeth into you sooner." Chirp! Okay, I guess I really only had myself to blame this time. Just make it quick. "I guess I can't eat you now, though. You did just save me."

I stood still in surprise before walking along to follow him. See that, guys? A good deed really does come to the benefit of the doer.

"You said your name was Hiro, right?" I felt disheartened at hearing him, but I wasn't going to deny it. It was the name my mother picked out after all. "I'm going to allow you to live in my nest as a reward for saving me, but, since I'm hungry, I'll have you act as bait to attract the digimon. I heard dokunemon are rather fond of plant digimon."

I held my breath. The first night of my third life was spent sleeping under the watch of this kind of digimon.


End file.
